CLYDE WISHAM
As [b:In Plain Sight 31868501 In Plain Sight (Joe Pickett, #6) C.J. Box https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1473277469s/31868501.jpg 898058] opens, Joe Pickett is struggling to do his job as a game warden while being plagued by a vindictive supervisor who is determined to see him fail. Then Opal Scarlett, the matriarch of the wealthy and powerful Scarlett family, goes missing. As game warden, Joe should have only a peripheral interest in the case, but events pull him into the investigation and the resulting family feud. And then there is J.W. Keeley, a psycho killer who has decided to hurt Joe Pickett in the worst way possible. C.J. Box melds these elements to produce a good crime-thriller.This is a well written story with an exciting and strong finish (with a typical C.J. Box twist). I particularly liked how many small seemingly unimportant details become crucial plot details as the story moves toward the climax.This story can be read stand-alone, but I recommend reading the earlier books in the series first.
This, the fifth Lanny Budd novel, continues the somewhat curious mixture of adventure, history, and romance of the series. In [b:Presidential Agent 28601213 Presidential Agent (The Lanny Budd Novels) Upton Sinclair https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453180481s/28601213.jpg 7387664] Lanny becomes a secret agent working directly for FDR. (Presidential agent #103, no license to kill.) At the start Lanny is also deeply concerned about the fate of his beloved Trudi, who was grabbed by the Nazis toward the end of the previous volume. Those two elements (agent + lover in peril) promised a good action-thriller. Unfortunately, that isn't what we got. I found this volume a bit tedious. It seems like Sinclair decided to give his views in great detail on all the decisions and activities in Europe in 1938 that pushed the world to the brink of WW2. The story suffered somewhat as a result.I will continue with the series.
As [b:Black Cherry Blues 16136444 Black Cherry Blues (Dave Robicheaux, #3) James Lee Burke https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352381867s/16136444.jpg 1509542] opens, Dave Robicheaux is trying to put his life back together. He is fighting the desire for alcohol and the depression resulting from his wife's recent death. All he wants to do is run his small business and rear his adopted daughter. But, a chance meeting with an old friend lands him in deep trouble.Accused of murder, he has to leave his native Louisiana and head into the big sky country of Montana to try and prove his innocence. There the plot thickens as Robicheaux has to deal with Mafia thugs, cold blooded murderers, local Native American problems, big oil interests, and a tough DEA agent. Nothing is simple and everything is dangerous.As usual with Burke, the writing is brilliant. His prose is rich and lyrical, the characters are well drawn, and he describes scenes much more vividly than most authors. I listened to the audio version, and Mark Hammer's narration was very good indeed.Good crime fiction.
[b:Saturn Run 24611668 Saturn Run John Sandford https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1429666760s/24611668.jpg 44222814] is hard science fiction – the good kind of hard science fiction with lots of geeky real science and real tech. It also tells a suspenseful and exciting story.An intern at Caltech was doing some routine image work to recalibrate a newly repaired space telescope when he spotted an anomaly. An object was approaching Saturn and it was decelerating. It could only be a spaceship and it wasn't from Earth. This effectively put the cat among the pigeons. The world's two superpowers, China and the USA, both started crash programs to go to Saturn and investigate. The race was on. It wouldn't be safe and it wouldn't be friendly. Alien tech of immeasurable value was at stake and both governments wanted it for their own.Good book; a high-tech, hard-science thriller filled with interesting characters. A solid four stars.
Murderbot is an android. It feels pretty awkward with humans and really just wants to be left alone. Unfortunately, circumstances don't allow that. Oh, and it has secretly hacked its governor and has free will.
We get lots of action, some quite nasty bad guys, and quite a bit of android existential angst. Pretty good story.
In [b:The Last Good Man 34810337 The Last Good Man Linda Nagata https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491469341s/34810337.jpg 56026785] [a:Linda Nagata 578581 Linda Nagata https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1492300517p2/578581.jpg] gives us an action-filled near future techno-thriller. The main protagonist, True Brighton, is a skilled and tough minded middle-aged woman. She and her team have to deal with all kinds of people ranging from purely evil torturers to ordinary folks. They sometimes have to make difficult moral choices in split seconds while carrying out missions.We get small-unit military operations, we get autonomous and semi-autonomous military bots, and we get an old mystery that begs to be resolved.Good story, well written and with a satisfying finish.
Without warning some unknown and unnamed aliens have attacked the human colony planet Hayden. Many, perhaps a majority, of the colonists have been killed, and the remainder have been driven into the jungles. The story kicks off with Sergeant Sorilla Aida, the lone surviver of a special forces unit that was dispatched to contact the colonists and find out what the hell is going on. It becomes her job to organize and inspire colonial resistance. While she is doing that, other human units take on the alien warcraft and soon find themselves at a serious technological disadvantage.
There is a lot of action both on the ground and in space. This is where Evan Currie shines. He really knows how to describe military action.
Pretty good military SF. 3.5 stars.
Very minor spoiler: Nothing to do with the story, but Curry overused and misused the work "smirk" so much that it actually became irritating and took me out of the story.
First of all, this is a pretty good historical novel. It is based on true events in the far western theater of the American Civil War. I found this quite interesting because, though I am somewhat a Civil War buff, I knew very little about the war in the far west. Specifically, the novel's protagonists were involved in the battles at Valverde Crossing (Feb, 1862) and Glorieta Pass (March, 1862) in New Mexico.
The writing is good and the mostly fictitious characters are interesting. Nagel does a pretty good job of placing the characters in their time and not giving them modern day motivations or sensibilities. There is a thread of romance running through the story which ends in a Big Reveal toward the end. (Though I figured it out quite early on.)
Good book. I will continue with the series.
[b:Epitaph 18739541 Epitaph Mary Doria Russell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404411572s/18739541.jpg 26617057] actually seems to me to be more like a text-based documentary than a traditional work of historical fiction. After reading it I feel that I now finally have an understanding of the events leading up to and following the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It is a story of lawmen and outlaws, sometimes a man is both at the same time. It is a story of wives, whores, and mistresses struggling to survive in a harsh environment. It is a story of desperate chases, deadly fights, merciless vendettas, dirty political dealing, and terrible misunderstandings all fanned by a partisan news media. It is also a story of bravery, love, and friendship. Good book.
For me this was a strange but oddly satisfying story. There is a tribe of fantastic rednecks called the Tufa who live in a remote community in the mountains of East Tennessee. They live their lives in and are part of that country community, but they are also always somehow different. A Tufa daughter, Bronwyn Hyatt, comes home a wounded hero from the Mid-East wars. She has changed and will bring changes.
Patrick Rothfuss said, “Imagine a book somewhere between American Gods and Faulkner.” That sums it up pretty succinctly I think.
[b:The Neon Rain 6547579 The Neon Rain (Dave Robicheaux, #1) James Lee Burke https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1330058021s/6547579.jpg 1916440] is a very good detective novel set in the 1980s. The writing is elegant, the story intricate, and the characters memorable. Burk takes you right into New Orleans of the time.I listened to the audio version. The narration by Will Patton was very good indeed.
This book is a companion to the earlier [b:Castaway Planet 22609239 Castaway Planet Eric Flint https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405259963s/22609239.jpg 42099275]. I recommend reading that book first. That is because Castaway Planet's characters make an appearance late in [b:Castaway Odyssey 29430687 Castaway Odyssey Eric Flint https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463041871s/29430687.jpg 49695257]. Although these two books are in the Flint/Spoor Boundary universe, they have no real connection to the first three books.There are no bad guys in Castaway Odyssey. It is a story of a struggle to survive a totally unexpected disaster. The castaways have to be both brave and smart and have to solve problem after problem just to stay alive. Things get pretty geeky with lots of details and interesting ideas. Recommended for those who like that kind of story.
Doctor Fung makes a very good case that the key to avoiding obesity and its related problems is in maintaining a proper hormonal balance. Insulin control is especially important. This is not a diet book nor is it a life-style book, though it does make recommendations in both areas. We learn why there is an obesity epidemic in many parts of the world, especially in first world countries. This book stands many things we have been told over the years on their heads. There is quite a bit of science, but I found it easy to follow, for it is presented with wit and skilfully written.
A must read for those struggling with weight problems and a good resource for anyone seeking a healthy lifestyle.
All science fiction readers of course know of Robert Silverberg and most of us have read at least some of his oeuvre. This book gives a glimpse into his life both in and out of the SF&F world. It provides a vision of Silverberg's with wide ranging interests and is well seasoned with his dry wit. I recommend it as well worth a read for those interested in Silverberg or in the golden age of science fiction.
Though a work of fiction, almost all of the characters in Russell's [b:Doc 8911226 Doc Mary Doria Russell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320560135s/8911226.jpg 13787599] are historical characters. The main character is John Henry Holliday, better known to most as “Doc” Holliday. When reading historical fiction based on actual historical characters, one always has to wonder how much of it is real. The answer in this case, in Mary Doria Russell's own words, is “not all of it but more than you might think.” This book is not about the famous gunfight at the O.K. corral. It covers Doc Holliday's early life but is mostly about Doc's time in Dodge City. The relationship between Doc and the Earp brothers is central to the story. It is not just a character study, however. It is also a murder mystery, and a good one.We get wild cowboys blowing off steam, gunfights, fistfights, prostitutes plying their trade, gambling for serious stakes, horse racing, murder, revenge, love, religion, and compassion all tied together by Russell's beautiful prose. What's not to like?Good book. Now on to [b:Epitaph 18739541 Epitaph Mary Doria Russell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404411572s/18739541.jpg 26617057].
3.5 stars. Ninefox Gambit is very well written, but I found it hard to get into. I tried it as an audiobook but that didn't work due to the plethora of odd names and terms. I had to switch to the ebook and finally it rewarded persistence.
This book is hard to categorize. I finally came to think of it as fantasy with a space opera veneer. Character driven, it is a fascinating but hard read. Lee makes nothing easy for you. Read with close attention.
